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The European Union, never known for its light touch, is pushing through the euro crisis with an unusually heavy hand. Surprisingly, few people seem to be complaining.

Brussels _ and the leaders of the EU’s two most powerful countries _ have come close to ordering that a government of national unity be formed in Greece, that a national referendum there be scrapped, and that Italy accept humiliating international financial inspection of its books.

But voters in those beleaguered member states seem weary for now of politics and the fine mess their elected leaders have gotten them into. They’ve looked over the precipice and seem to have decided just for the moment to forego politics, ballot-going and little quibbles over sovereignty.

The normally fiercely independent-minded people of Greece and Italy _ both countries in dire trouble over their sovereign debts _ seem willing to accept as their new prime ministers technocrats who are veterans of pan-European institutions with reputations for meddling in national affairs.

The new prime minister of Greece is Lucas Papademos, a 64-year-old former vice president of the European Central Bank. The expected new leader of Italy, once the flamboyant and often embarrassing Silvio Berlusconi resigns, is 68-year-old Mario Monti _ a former competition commission for none other than the EU.

It’s beyond doubt that France and Germany play a huge role in making decisions on behalf of all 27 EU nations. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel often meet in advance of EU summits to hash out a common position on the issues of the day, which they then present to the other 25 heads of government, almost as a fait accompli.

These pre-summit meetings have evolved now into an informal committee called the Frankfurt Group, which also includes officials from the EU the IMF.

And though the European Union casts itself as a global supporter of democracy, some recent actions by Sarkozy, Merkel and EU officials based in Brussels could be viewed pretty much as diktats that were not particularly deferential to the rights of national voters to shape national policies.

EU leaders erupted in rage at the call by George Papandreou, then Greece’s prime minister, for putting the terms of Greece’s bailout to a referendum. After Merkel and Sarkozy summoned him to the G-20 summit in Cannes to explain himself, the referendum was duly scrapped.

Wielding the power to withhold a desperately needed euro8 billion ($11 billion) batch of bailout money, EU leaders strongly urged that Greece’s two main parties join in a government of national unity _ which they did. And EU honchos made no secret of their preference for Papademos to lead that government of national unity.

So, after four days of wrangling, the Socialists and Conservatives tapped Papademos.

In Italy, EU officials imposed International Monetary Fund financial monitoring on Italy _ essentially an expression of mistrust of the elected government there.

But people in Greece and Italy, feeling badly let down by the governments they elected, do not seem to be taking offense at the outside help.

In Greece, where democracy was invented, recession-weary citizens seem less than keen to hurry back to the ballot box. According to a recent poll, 79 percent of them opposed Papandreou’s plan to hold the referendum on a bailout. The Alco telephone poll of 1,000 adults conducted Nov. 2-4 also found that more than half of Greek voters _ 52 percent _ preferred the formation of a coalition government to early general elections. No margin of error was given.

Italians are angry, but their wrath is directed more toward Berlusconi and Italian politicians in general for the mess they are in, rather than at EU headquarters in Brussels.

“We’re angry with our government for its lack of action,” said Amadeo Lefevre, as he arranged the shelves in his bookshop a few blocks from Berlusconi’s residence and the Chamber of Deputies. “They have no policy, no strategy.”

Adriaan Schout, an expert on European politics at the Clingendael international affairs institute in the Netherlands, said voters have reason to feel let down by what their democracies have achieved.

“Politics have done great damage to the economic and monetary union,” Schout said.

Furthermore, he said, it is not the business of democracy to hold referendums on every issue that comes along, and the lack of them does not make the EU undemocratic. Democracy sets goals and parameters, and then it is up to technocrats to implement those policies, he said.

But if the EU is in fact democratic _ it has its rules, it is governed by elected heads of government and an elected parliament _ another unelected force is at play in the current crisis: the markets.

Market reaction played perhaps as big a role in forcing the cancellation of Greece’s proposed referendum as did the EU or Sarkozy or Merkel. And those faceless markets also put huge pressure on Berlusconi to go.

The reason the markets are now able to wield such power is because the political class has fumbled and simply handed it over to them.

“It is not the markets who have a 120 percent public debt,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political analyst at Rome’s LUISS University. “It is the politicians who created the 120 percent public debt. These debts are now offering the markets the chance to dictate their conditions.”

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Many people think being a landlord and investing in real estate is a way to make easy money. It can be financially rewarding if you do your homework and reduce your risks. But easy, it isn

President Barack Obama’s health care law created a $5 billion fund to shore up coverage for early retirees, and some of that money is flowing to places you might not expect.

Two Texas public employee programs are among the top 25 recipients of the federal subsidy despite Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s opposition to the law Republicans derisively call “Obamacare.”

And records show the Huntsman family business, where GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman sharpened his executive skills, received about $1 million.

It highlights the gap between dire Republican rhetoric about the health care overhaul and the pragmatic impulse to cash in on a new government benefit.

Employer-sponsored health insurance for retirees has been shriveling for years, ever since companies were required to report the estimated liability to investors. Democrats who wrote the new law wanted to provide an incentive for employers to keep offering coverage. Only about 6 percent of private companies currently offer such a benefit for early retirees, according to the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

But that still works out to more than 400,000 companies. Add state and local government agencies, as well as union plans, and the number swells. Indeed, the Obama administration’s subsidy program got so many applications it stopped accepting new ones after approving more than 6,000. The program pays 80 percent of the claims amount for early retirees ages 55 to 64 whose care costs between $15,000 and $90,000.

The top beneficiary: the United Auto Workers retiree medical plan, which has collected more than $220 million.

“Some people have described this program as `Cash for Clunkers,’ in the sense that if you want it, you have to get in line first,” said Paul Fronstin, an economist with the research group. “There was a lot of advice given to be first in line.” The original Cash for Clunkers was an Obama administration program that paid people to trade in gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient transportation. It created a marketing sensation before running out of cash.

Texas, it seems, heeded the advice. So did Huntsman International.

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, a statewide system for public education employees, received more than $70 million as of Sept. 22, according to the federal Health and Human Services Department. The Employees Retirement System of Texas, which covers state employees, received about $30 million.

Huntsman International, the main operating subsidiary of the family-founded chemical conglomerate, is also collecting subsidies.

As candidates, both Perry and Huntsman have sworn to repeal Obama’s signature health care law, which gradually extends coverage to most of the uninsured and makes numerous other changes, including a ban on insurers denying coverage to people in poor health and an unpopular requirement that most Americans carry coverage quick cash.

Spokesmen for the Perry and Huntsman campaigns said they see no contradictions.

Texas taxpayers also pay federal taxes, said Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan. “State taxpayers have a right to get those federal funds returned to them, in this care in the form of disbursement to the teachers and state employee retirement systems,” said Sullivan. “No Texas law or policy needed to be changed in order for these agencies to be eligible to receive the funds.”

Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller said his candidate, Obama’s first ambassador to China and a former governor of Utah, is opposed to all subsidies.

Jon Huntsman has not been involved in the family business since 2005, said company spokesman Gary Chapman. Huntsman resigned from the company to pursue his political career.

Asked why Huntsman International applied for the early retiree subsidy, Chapman responded: “We’re a commercial organization. We are looking to maximize our shareholders’ value. If there was a legitimate opportunity for us to get help in this respect, we would go for it.”

Republicans have tried to paint the early retiree subsidy program as a political reward to unions, among the staunchest Democratic loyalists. According to calculations by the office of Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust has made out the best.

A UAW spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. In its 2007 contracts with Chrysler, GM and Ford, the union agreed to form the trust to pay health care costs for the companies’ retirees, including early retirees too young to qualify for Medicare. The trust started paying bills in January 2010, before Congress passed the health care law.

The calculations by Enzi’s staff also list AT&T, Verizon, General Electric, General Motors, Qwest, Caterpillar and other private companies in the top 25, not to mention the two Texas state programs. AT&T received $157 million.

Several media companies are also benefiting. The Associated Press, a nonprofit news-gathering service owned by the nation’s newspapers, has received $191,888.

Back in Texas, public and private employer retiree plans have collected more than $326 million from the subsidy. They range from American Airlines to Texas A&M University _ Perry’s alma mater.

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Valero Energy Corp. says its profit quadrupled in the third quarter as it cut raw material costs while the price of gasoline and other fuels increased. Valero also boosted production.

America’s largest oil refiner on Tuesday reported net income of $1.2 billion, or $2.11 per share, for the three-month period ended Sept. 30. That compares with $292 million, or 51 cents per share, for the same part of 2010.

Revenue increased 60.4 percent to $33.7 billion in the quarter business card.

Analysts expect Valero to earn $1.80 per share on revenue of $31.4 billion, according to FactSet.

The San Antonio company said that it focused on using light-sweet oil varieties that were cheaper than others. While its raw material costs fell, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices rose.

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SAN FRANCISCO — A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a skeptic all his life — giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple “corrupt” and delaying cancer surgery in favour of cleansings and herbal medicine.

“Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, to be published Monday, also says Jobs came up with the company’s name while he was on a diet of fruits and vegetables, and as a teenager perfected staring at people without blinking.

The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Thursday.

The book delves into Jobs’ decision to delay surgery for nine months after learning in October 2003 that he had a neuroendocrine tumour — a relatively rare type of pancreatic cancer that normally grows more slowly and is therefore more treatable.

Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He also was influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, the book says, before finally having surgery in July 2004.

Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book: “‘I really didn’t want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,’ he told me years later with a hint of regret.”

Jobs died Oct. 5, at age 56, after a battle with cancer.

The book also provides insight into the unravelling of Jobs’ relationship with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009. Schmidt had quit Apple’s board as Google and Apple went head-to-head in smartphones, Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android software.

Isaacson wrote that Jobs was livid in January 2010 when HTC introduced an Android phone that boasted many of the popular features of the iPhone. Apple sued, and Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google’s actions amounted to “grand theft.”

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

Jobs used an expletive to describe Android and Google Docs, Google’s Internet-based word processing program. In a subsequent meeting with Schmidt at a Palo Alto, California, cafe, Jobs told Schmidt that he wasn’t interested in settling the lawsuit, the book says.

“I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.” The meeting, Isaacson wrote, resolved nothing.

The book is clearly designed to evoke the Apple style. Its cover features the title and author’s name starkly printed in black and grey type against a white background, along with a black-and-white photo of Jobs, thumb and forefinger to his chin.

The biography, for which Jobs granted more than three dozen interviews, is also a look into the thoughts of a man who was famously secret, guarding details of his life as he did Apple’s products, and generating plenty of psychoanalysis from a distance.

Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO on Aug. 24, six weeks before he died.

Doctors said Thursday that it was not clear whether the delayed treatment made a difference in Jobs’ chances for survival.

“People live with these cancers for far longer than nine months before they’re even diagnosed,” so it’s not known how quickly one can prove fatal, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Michael Pishvaian, a pancreatic cancer expert at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said people often are in denial after a cancer diagnosis, and some take a long time to accept recommended treatments.

“We’ve had many patients who have had bad outcomes when they have delayed treatment. Nine months is certainly a significant period of time to delay,” he said.

Fortune magazine reported in 2008 that Jobs tried alternative treatments because he was suspicious of mainstream medicine.

The book says Jobs gave up Christianity at age 13 when he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine paydayloans. He asked whether his Sunday school pastor knew what would happen to them.

Jobs never went back to church, though he did study Zen Buddhism later.

Jobs calls the crop of executives brought in to run Apple after his ouster in 1985 “corrupt people” with “corrupt values” who cared only about making money. Jobs himself is described as caring far more about product than profit.

He told Isaacson they cared only about making money “for themselves mainly, and also for Apple — rather than making great products.”

Jobs returned to the company in 1997. After that, he introduced the candy-coloured iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, and turned Apple into the most valuable company in America by market value for a time.

The book says that, while some Apple board members were happy that Hewlett-Packard gave up trying to compete with Apple’s iPad, Jobs did not think it was cause for celebration.

“Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands,” Jobs told Isaacson. “But now it’s being dismembered and destroyed.”

“I hope I’ve left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple,” he added.

Advance sales of the book have topped bestseller lists. Much of the biography adds to what was already known, or speculated, about Jobs. While Isaacson is not the first to tell Jobs’ story, he had unprecedented access. Their last interview was weeks before Jobs died.

Jobs reveals in the book that he didn’t want to go to college, and the only school he applied to was Reed, a costly private college in Portland, Oregon. Once accepted, his parents tried to talk him out of attending Reed, but he told them he wouldn’t go to college if they didn’t let him go there. Jobs wound up attending but dropped out after less than a year and never went back.

Jobs told Isaacson that he tried various diets, including one of fruits and vegetables. On the naming of Apple, he said he was “on one of my fruitarian diets.” He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”

Jobs’ eye for simple, clean design was evident early. The case of the Apple II computer had originally included a Plexiglas cover, metal straps and a roll-top door. Jobs, though, wanted something elegant that would make Apple stand out.

He told Isaacson he was struck by Cuisinart food processors while browsing at a department store and decided he wanted a case made of moulded plastic.

He called Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, his “spiritual partner” at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had “more operation power” at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself — that there’s no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, says Jobs, is “the way I set it up.”

Jobs was never a typical CEO. Apple’s first president, Mike Scott, was hired mainly to manage Jobs, then 22. One of his first projects, according to the book, was getting Jobs to bathe more often. It didn’t work.

Jobs’ dabbling in LSD and other aspects of 1960s counterculture has been well documented. In the book, Jobs says LSD “reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”

He also revealed that the Beatles were one of his favourite bands, and one of his wishes was to get the band on iTunes, Apple’s revolutionary online music store, before he died. The Beatles’ music went on sale on iTunes in late 2010.

The book was originally called “iSteve” and scheduled to come out in March. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs’ death, to Monday. It is published by Simon & Schuster and will sell for $35.

Isaacson will appear Sunday on “60 Minutes.” CBS News, which airs the program, released excerpts of the book Thursday.

Ortutay reported from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York and AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee also contributed to this report.

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Workers at Chrysler’s largest United Auto Workers local have voted in favor of a new four-year contract, a sign that the deal will be approved when voting ends next week.

If Chrysler’s 26,000 union workers ratify their contract, they will join workers at Ford and General Motors in approving deals that give up annual pay raises for most workers but replace them with profit sharing and signing bonuses. The deals also promise at least 13,000 new union jobs at all three companies.

Wednesday’s announcement of the vote by union workers at three Chrysler facilities in Indiana comes on the same day that the United Auto Workers said union members had approved a new contract at Ford Motor Co., with 63 percent of those casting ballots in favor. General Motors Co. workers ratified their deal last month.

The contracts set the wages and benefits for 112,000 auto workers nationwide, and also influence the pay at auto plants owned by foreign companies, auto parts supply companies and other industries.

United Auto Workers Local 685, which represents about 3,500 workers at three Chrysler transmission factories in Kokomo, Ind., approved the contract in voting on Tuesday, said Jerry Price, vice president of the local.

He said that 58 percent of production workers voted in favor of the contract, while skilled trades workers such as electricians and pipe fitters split 50-50. Since most of the local’s 3,500 members are production workers, Price said the vote is a good sign that the contract will be ratified by the time voting ends next week.

He conceded that the contract isn’t the best of the Detroit Three automakers and said those who opposed it were unhappy that GM and Ford workers got better signing bonuses.

“Chrysler’s still not financially as good as Ford or General Motors,” Price said. “We live to fight another day.”

The Kokomo local was among the first in the company to count ballots. Voting is expected to end next Tuesday.

The Chrysler deal includes a $3,500 signing bonus and profit-sharing, but it’s not as rich as the contracts at Ford and GM. Ford’s signing bonus, for instance, is $6,000, while GM’s is $5,000. Chrysler Group LLC has yet to make a full-year profit since it emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2009, while GM and Ford have each made billions.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also runs Italy’s Fiat SpA, said Wednesday in Turin, Italy, that he is confident the deal will be approved by the UAW even though it doesn’t give workers as much as the company’s Detroit competitors.

“I think the UAW and ourselves hammered out the best possible deal that we could. We know the limitations,” Marchionne told reporters.

If the deal is rejected, it would go to an arbitrator, who would hold a hearing and decide what the workers will get. Workers at Chrysler cannot strike over wages under the terms of the company’s 2009 government bailout.

Chrysler hasn’t made an annual profit since 2005. The company earned $116 million in the first quarter, its first quarterly net profit in five years. But it lost $370 million in the second quarter, mostly because of charges for refinancing debt.

Chrysler expects to earn $200 million to $500 million this year, excluding the debt charges. But the profit is tiny compared with its Detroit rivals. Ford reported a profit of $6.6 billion last year, while GM earned $4.7 billion.

The Chrysler deal promises up to 2,100 new jobs and investment of $4.5 billion in U.S. factories.

At Ford, workers overcame early opposition and overwhelmingly approved their contract in voting that lasted two weeks.

More than 22,000 workers, or 63 percent of those who cast ballots, voted in favor of the pact, while almost 13,000, or 37 percent, opposed it, the union said in a statement Wednesday.

Ford promised $4.8 billion in new investments in its U.S. plants and 5,750 new jobs. Both sides reached agreement on Oct. 4, but like the other two companies, workers had to ratify it with a majority vote.

Most workers won’t get annual raises, but they will get profit-sharing checks, inflation adjustment payments and other bonuses worth at least $16,700 through 2015. The deal at GM was similar.

The vote ends the threat of a strike at Ford, the only company where the union could stage a walkout. Strikes over wages also were banned at GM as part of its government bailout. Ford borrowed billions from private sources and didn’t take government money.

UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles, the union’s top Ford negotiator, said in a statement that workers at Ford were frustrated with the economy, a lack of pay increases and what he called “outrageous” executive pay packages, yet they still approved the pact. Eighty-five percent of the union’s 41,000 members at Ford voted, he said.

“As the nation’s economy remains stalled and uncertain and its employment rate stagnates, we were able to win an agreement with Ford that will bring auto manufacturing jobs back to the United States from China, Mexico and Japan,” union President Bob King said.

The company said the deal means it will add shifts at four U.S. factories: Michigan Assembly in Wayne, Mich., near Detroit, where the Focus compact is made; the Chicago Assembly Plant, where Ford makes the Taurus sedan and Explorer SUV; Louisville Assembly in Kentucky, where Ford will make the new Escape small SUV; and the Auto Alliance plant in Flat Rock, Mich., which will get additional production of the Fusion midsize car.

The company also will move production of medium-duty trucks from a joint venture with Navistar International Corp. in General Escobedo, Mexico, to an assembly plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, near Cleveland. That plant now makes E-Series large van.

The fate of the Ford contract was in doubt early when workers in Wayne, Mich., and Chicago voted to reject it. The deal was losing by a narrow margin until Friday, but several factories voted overwhelmingly in favor to tip it toward passage.

“Our agreement is fair to our employees and it improves our competitiveness in the U.S.,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas, said in a statement.

Despite the signing bonuses and profit-sharing, analysts expect a minimal impact to Ford’s labor costs, in part because most of the new workers will be hired at lower wage rates than the company’s longtime workers. Brian Johnson, an auto analyst with Barclays Capital, estimates the contract will add around $70 million to Ford’s costs each year. If large numbers of older workers leave under buyout and early retirement offers, Ford will spend less, he said.

Johnson said Ford could see immediate benefits from the union approval with a ratings upgrade, which would help lower its borrowing costs.

Shares of Ford rose 6 cents to $11.84 in afternoon trading Wednesday.

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Federal Reserve policymakers considered a third round of bond purchases at their last meeting, and at least two members said the weakening economy might require it.

In the end, the Fed stopped short of expanding its portfolio of investments. Instead, it opted to shift $400 billion of its investments to try to lower long-term interest rates.

Minutes of the Sept. 20-21 meeting show the two officials, who were not named, were willing to go along with the Fed’s policy action because policymakers did not rule out taking further steps.

In its statement, the central bank also a bleak economic outlook, saying its sees “significant downside risks,” including volatility in overseas markets.

Three members of the committee, all regional bank presidents, dissented from the Fed’s statement for the second straight meeting. That marked the highest level of dissent at the Fed in nearly 20 years.

Chairman Ben Bernanke has acknowledged that the effort would not be a “game-changer.” He said the move could lower long-term interest rates by about one-fifth of a percentage point, during testimony before Congress last week.

But Bernanke also said last week that the economic recovery “is close to faltering.” He said the Fed is prepared to take further steps to support it.

The U.S. economy is barely growing and not producing enough jobs to lower the unemployment rate, which has been stuck at about 9 percent for two years.

In September, employers added 103,000 net jobs. While that was enough to ease recession fears, it takes about 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

Without more jobs and higher pay increases, consumers are likely to keep spending cautiously. Many have already cut back on spending in the face of steeper food and gas prices. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Lower rates could help in a number of ways. Homeowners could refinance their mortgages at lower rates, leaving them more money to spend or pay down debt. Businesses could expand or invest at lower costs, allowing some to hire more workers.

But economists doubt the Fed’s latest move will do much because interest rates are already at historic lows. Last week, Freddie Mac said the average rate on the 30-year mortgage fell below 4 percent for the first time ever, to 3.94 percent.

In addition to shuffling its portfolio, the Fed has said it plans to keep short-term rates at record lows until at least mid-2013, assuming the economy remains weak.

The three regional bank presidents also opposed that decision. The dissenters argued that the actions the Fed has taken are raising the risks that inflation, currently at low levels, could become a problem once the economy begins to grow at stronger speeds.

Other Fed officials, however, are pushing for the central bank to do more. Some support a third round of bond buying that would expand the size of the Fed’s already record holdings of Treasury securities. One Fed official, Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, has argued for a change in the Fed’s guidance that would link any pledge to keep rates at low levels until unemployment, currently 9.1 percent, falls below 7.5 percent.

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BlackBerry’s maker says smartphone users in Latin America and India also are experiencing problems with messaging and browsing services.

Research in Motion Ltd. said Tuesday users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are affected.

The brief statement follows an online uproar as BlackBerry users experienced a second day of disruptions after an unexplained glitch cut off Internet and messaging services Monday for large numbers of users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

There were no reports of any problems in the U.S.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) _ BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with service disruptions to their smartphones for a second day after an unexplained glitch cut off Internet and messaging services for large numbers of users around the world.

Research in Motion Ltd., which makes BlackBerry devices, acknowledged there were ongoing issues Tuesday, hours after it said services were operating normally and the issue responsible for delays in subscriber services a day earlier had been resolved.

“Some areas have messaging delays and impaired browsing,” Blackberry said on Twitter, adding it was working to “restore normal service as quickly as possible online payday advance.”

In Britain, Vodafone UK told customers via Twitter that service was not fully restored. Rival T-Mobile UK blamed “a European-wide outage on the BlackBerry network” which it said was affecting all mobile operators. There were also reports of problems elsewhere in Europe, such as Spain.

The disruptions were also felt in the Middle East and Africa.

Etisalat, which operates in the United Arab Emirates, apologized for “the further interruption” to Blackberry services, “once again due to RIM problems.”

And Kenya’s Safaricom Ltd. said on Twitter that its Blackberry customers were experiencing a “technical fault,” while South Africa’s Vodacom told subscribers the issues were affecting multiple networks and countries.

There were no reports of any problems in the U.S.

Angry smartphone users also used Twitter to vent frustration with the company and bemoaned the loss of their messaging capabilities, questioning why the company took so long to restore services.

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The European Central Bank offered new emergency loans to banks on Thursday to help steady them through the government debt crisis, but decided to keep interest rates on hold despite fears of a sharp economic slowdown.

President Jean-Claude Trichet did not even indicate that a rate cut was due in coming months, which many experts expect will be necessary to stave off a possible new recession.

“The economic outlook remains subject to particularly high uncertainty and intensified downside risks,” Trichet said, adding however that “at the same time interest rates remain low” and that inflation will likely remain high for months.

Instead, Trichet focused on measures to keep the financial system working properly. The ECB will offer an unlimited amount of 12-month and 13-month loans to banks. That will provide banks financing for a longer period and shield them from turbulence in borrowing markets.

The ECB will also keep offering unlimited amounts of credit at its shorter-term lending operations of up to 3 months through the first half of next year free business cards.

Many European banks are exposed to losses on Greek debt. That has made borrowing between banks, crucial for their daily functioning, increasingly difficult because of fears the money might not be repaid.

Trichet said the bank would also buy up to euro40 billion ($53 billion) in covered bonds, a type of security used by banks to raise funding. The ECB’s presence will help free up that credit market and make borrowing easier for banks.

The bank has maintained throughout the crisis that its unconventional measures such as extra credits are kept in a separate track from interest rate policy, and Thursday’s decisions continued that stance.

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Stock futures rose sharply Thursday after applications for unemployment benefits fell to a five-month low. The government also reported that the economy grew slightly faster in the spring than previously reported.

Initial unemployment claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 391,000. That’s the lowest level since April 2 and also the first time applications have fallen below 400,000 since Aug. 6. The big drop suggests that layoffs are stabilizing. Still, economists say unemployment requests need to consistently fall below 375,000 to indicate job growth.

The Commerce Department also said that the economy grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, up from the 1 percent estimate made a month ago. The improvement reflects modest growth in consumer spending and trade.

Both reports gave investors some confidence about the strength of the economy.

“The economy in the rear-view mirror here … was growing at a pretty modest pace; not anywhere near what anyone would like, but not troublesome,” said Rob Lutts, president and chief investment officer of Cabot Money Management. “This gives us a little more confidence that maybe the economy will muddle through here as we go through all these challenges.”

About a half hour before the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 137 points, or 1.3 percent, at 11,113.

Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 15, or 1.3 percent, at 1,163. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 35, or 1.6 percent, at 2,253.

In Europe, German lawmakers voted to expand the powers of the region’s bailout fund quick guaranteed personal loans. That reassured investors that Europe is working to contain its debt problems.

The measure needs to be approved by all 17 countries that use the euro before it can take effect. It will allow the bailout fund to buy government bonds and lend money to troubled governments before they get to a full-blown crisis. Finland approved it on Wednesday.

Concerns about Europe have roiled the financial markets since late July. Analysts say investors are reacting to every bit of news from the region, which has contributed to volatility in stocks.

Case in point: Stocks rose earlier this week on hopes that Europe was moving closer to resolving its debt problems. The Dow soared 272 points on Monday, its fourth-largest increase this year, and another 147 points on Tuesday. By Wednesday, a three-day winning streak came to an end on more uncertainties about Europe’s debt. The Dow fell 180 points.

In corporate news, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. fell 9 percent in premarket trading Thursday after the company cut its revenue and earnings forecast for the third quarter, saying it was having problems getting its chips made.

Wheel and tire maker Titan International rose 3 percent ahead of the opening. The company boosted its revenue forecast for the year and said it is in a “great position to grow.”

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